Why it works: Venison and cabbage work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and 22 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the stew
Combine the venison, red wine, ketchup, browning sauce, onion, and anchovy in a stewing pan.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let the venison heat through.
Serve
Pour the mixture into a soup dish over sippets.
Garnish with red cabbage or currant jelly.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Venison + cabbagetop 23% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together22 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,048 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ketchup + anchovytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together470 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Red wine + clovetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together636 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison
- Forms the main body of the stew and becomes tender when heated gently in the liquid.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the liquid as it reduces during heating.
- Browning sauce
- Contributes a deeper brown colour and a savoury, caramelised flavour to the stew.
- Anchovy
- Adds a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the flavour without tasting fishy.
The step that matters
Bringing to a boil, then reducing heat. Boiling briefly and then dropping the heat to a gentle simmer keeps the thinly sliced venison from toughening. Hard, prolonged boiling makes meat firm and dry, so the heat must be lowered once the liquid boils.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, red wine, ketchup, sauce, onion, anchovy, bread):
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, red wine, ketchup, sauce, onion, anchovy, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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